Wretched

Wretched by Emily McIntire

June 2024

4 out of 5

Book 3 in the Never After Series

“The cottage in the woods may be our house, but there's no place in the world like home.
And Evelina is mine.”

“But if I’m her calm, then she is my chaos, and if I can’t live with her forever, then I don’t want to live at all.”

Wretched is a dark romance retelling of “The Wizard of Oz.” Although the story is not based off from the original story it does give references to the the story, character names and some fun twists. Wretched is about Evelina, and her families business of producing a secret drug called “The Flying Monkeys.” Along the way Evelina, Dorothy and their father have to face challenges of the family business and hire new people. Little did they know that there is a rat in the new people, but who falls for “Nick/Brayden” first that complicates the situation more with his hidden identity. Nick started working a new case, went to bar the nigh before and fell for the girl he met, later he realizes that it is the daughter of the Westerly man who he is trying to bust. Will the family business be in trouble, do they find out he is the rat, who falls in love with who?

“Bricks are meant for paths,  Yet somehow we’re always still.  If there’s nothing for us in the now,  Then I know there never will.  You belong up here in the light,  and me, in poppies down below.  Maybe one day we’ll meet again,  On the other side of a rainbow.”

• Dual POV

• Dark Romance

• Poppies/ Flying Monkey

• Enemies to Lovers/ Forbidden Romance

• Lies/ Betrayal

• Family dynamics

• “Pretty Girl”

Although I loved the first book in this stand alone series, I did not absolutely love this one. I found the plot, character development, and snips of the original Wizard of Oz was fun but it was not as captivating to me as the first one was. Just like the first book, I liked how the author decided to relate to the original story of the Wizard of Oz in ways that you wouldn’t of thought to, or have the people in the story be hidden references to the original story. It was an interesting read and definitely worth reading, but it just wasn’t my favorite.

**trigger warnings should be read before reading this

“I’ve never thought about the word much, but the guilt I feel for every single thing involving Eveline is a tornado, whirling quick and strong, destroying everything it touches. And then it compounds because I know, without a doubt, if I went back and had a chance to do it all over, I wouldn’t change a thing.”